Anxiety rises among Mumbai’s 4 lakh pagdi residents over stalled redevelopment

The redevelopment of 935 old and dilapidated buildings in Mumbai has once again come under a cloud as a legal dispute concerning the powers of MHADArsquos executive engineers to issue notices under Section 79A has now reached the Supreme Court The development has sparked anxiety among nearly four lakh residents living in these pagdi system buildings whose redevelopment projects remain stalled due to the prolonged litigationThe issue revolves around whether executive engineers of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority MHADA have the authority to issue 79A notices which are critical for initiating eviction and redevelopment proceedings in dangerous or cessed buildings The Bombay High Court had constituted a special committee to investigate the legal and administrative validity of such powersldquoThe committee recently submitted its report offering some hope that the impasse could soon be resolved However before any clarity could emerge the matter escalated with landlords challenging the Bombay High Courtrsquos orders in the apex court raising fresh uncertainty over the fate of hundreds of pending redevelopment projects across the cityrdquo said a MHADA officialWhatrsquos the mattergtgt The Bombay High Court in July 2025 directed that a special committee examine the issuance of notices under section 79A to 935 pagdi building owners and the role of different officials andor motives if any in issuance of these noticesgtgt The direction was given while hearing a December 2024 plea made by several landlords of these pagdi buildingsSpecial committee reportrsquos findings in shortgtgt As per MHADA resolution dated May 28 2001June 27 2001 executive engineers have been declared as a competent authority and since then they have been performing the duties and functions of declaring the buildings as dangerous and taking consequential stepsgtgt Even the state government guidelines dated October 22 2023 contemplate that the notice under section 79A could be issued by the executive engineers to the owners of dangerous buildings to submit a proposal for redevelopment with the consent of at least 51 per cent of the tenantsResident SpeakNinad Shivnekar Parel residentlsquoWe live on the second floor which is the top storey of our building My fiveyearold daughter my wife and I sleep on the terrace as our house is small and both my parents are old The toilets are outside the house which makes it difficult to use for my ailing parents The roof could collapse at any time I have been desperately looking for hoardings and wooden materials to secure the roof for the past few weeks now The city known for its humanity also has inhuman people like these landlords and thatrsquos the ugly truth of MumbairsquoDinesh Loke Dadar residentldquoSoon Mumbai will start witnessing heavy monsoon rains As our building is in litigation neither can we get it repaired nor is the redevelopment process going ahead Also since MHADArsquos competence is being questioned the premonsoon structural audit will also not be conducted for our buildings this year Are the authorities just waiting for us to dierdquoSumedha Tawde Girgaon residentlsquoFirst the landlords stopped taking rent then they refused to do the repairs then they threatened us to vacate the house stating that we hadnrsquot paid the rent And when nothing worked in their favour they used the judicial system to delay redevelopment As a result we tenants are forced to live in dangerous houses which may fall anytime Considering our financial conditions and todayrsquos property and rent rates we cannot buy or rent a new home nearby Now that the matter has reached the apex court it will just be another long waitrsquoActivist SpeakJitendra Ghadge ActivistldquoThere is an urgent need to make changes to the Maharashtra Rent Control Act and MHADA Act in light of the findings of the committee report on cessed buildings and Section 79A Certain changes see blueprint box can bring in remarkable justice to the lakhs of pagdi residentsrdquo